Religious Studies

Religious Studies is a core subject within St Mary’s curriculum.

In Religious Studies we will provide an inspiring curriculum that:

• Develops a coherent understanding of the Catholic faith and an appreciation of the spiritual, cultural and moral diversity within the world.

• Serves the needs of all students challenging them to think critically and excel academically.

• Gives students the opportunity to think about who they are and what they stand for preparing them to become resilient, respectful and active citizens.

Our curriculum allows students to develop the following Interdisciplinary Skills:

• Literacy

• Critical Thinking

• Analysis

• Evaluation Contextualisation Synthesis

• Recall

• Reflection

In 2025, our CSI Report judged the RS Department as “Outstanding” in all areas and stated that “Student behaviour in lessons is outstanding”. They also wrote that “The teaching of RS at St Mary’s is exceptional. Teachers instil a sense of curiosity in their students, resulting in students who are highly motivated to succeed.”

Key Stage 3

There is no national curriculum for Religious Studies at KS3, however, Catholic Schools are expected to follow the Religious Education Directory (as set down by the Bishops of England and Wales). As such, our programmes of study are bespoke and have been created to give students a coherent understanding of Catholicism and other world faiths and world views. Our Curriculum Narrative for Key Stage 3 Religious Studies is the Story of God and Humans.

In Religious Studies, learning is deeply-embedded through a spiral curriculum which revisits key knowledge in a range of topics. In each Standard (topic) students will receive a “Pit-Stop” lesson where new learning is consolidated. At the end of each Standard students sit an assessment, or Knowledge Check Point, which indicates where students have been successful and where there are areas for improvement. In the final term, all students sit an End of Year assessment which covers knowledge from across the year. Students are given a dedicated period of time in lessons to revise and prepare for this assessment. Throughout KS3 students develop their written skills such as describing, explaining and evaluating – all of which are then built on in KS4. As well as Catholic Christianity, students will also be introduced to a number of other worldviews including Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism and Humanism.

An outline of our curriculum is found below:

Key Stage 4

At GCSE, we follow the Eduqas Route B Religious Studies specification. This entails teaching 75% content on Catholic Christianity and 25% content on Judaism. This is directed by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales.

In Year 10, our curriculum narrative is to develop a coherent understanding of Jewish beliefs and practices, Catholic Foundational Theology (Origins and Meaning and Good and Evil) and Non-Religious Worldviews. In Year 11, our narrative is to develop a coherent understanding of Catholic Applied Theology (Life and Death and Sin and Forgiveness) and Non -Religious Worldviews.

Students will not complete any coursework but will be examined at the end of Year 11 in the form of three separate examination papers. We give students a solid grounding in active revision techniques and interleave our content to ensure that students can remember the content from previous topics and compare the different belief systems they study.

Homework in KS4 is a combination of learning homework, focussing on 'Key Concepts' for each topic, exam style questions and challenging reading homework designed to extend their knowledge of the topic and also their cultural capital and literacy skills.

Our pit-stop lessons, that take place mid-topic, are designed to allow students to recap and consolidate their learning. They will complete key tasks and use this time to ensure their learning 'sticks'.

Each topic ends with a series of revision lessons and then an exam style assessment to allow us to assess their knowledge and skills. After each assessment there is a 'Closing the Gap' lesson where students can recognise their successes and hone their performance by completing and re-drafting tasks. Students will also complete an exam style mock exam in both Year 10 and Year 11.

In order to further enrich their learning and bring this content to life, we invite a variety of speakers into school or via a virtual Q&A.  Recent visitors have included an Orthodox Rabbi and a Humanist Speaker.

 An outline of the content of our course is found below:

Key Stage 5

In KS5, we follow OCR’s Religious Studies A-Level. This is an in-depth study of Developments in Christian Thought, Philosophy of Religion and Religion and Ethics. Students have three separate teachers for each of these distinct components and have a total of six lessons per week. Students will cover a range of topics as outlined in the table below: